Retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson made the comment in response to Mitt Romney campaign surrogate John Sununu's suggestion on Thursday that Powell's endorsement of President Barack Obama's re-election was motivated by race. Wilkerson, who served as Powell's chief of staff when the general was secretary of state during the first George W. Bush term, told Schultz that he respected Sununu "as a Republican, as a member of my party," but did not "have any respect for the integrity of the position that seemed to codify."

When asked by Schultz what, if anything, the remark said about the attitudes of the Republican Party, Wilkerson said:

My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people -- not all of them, but most of them -- who are still basing their positions on race. Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists, and the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin, and that's despicable.

Accusing Sununu of racism is an easy way to divert attention from a very legitimate question, is race a factor in Powells choice to support Obama? I don't see a problem with asking this question. People throw around the word racism to often.

Powell gave a long list of explicit reasons not only why he was endorsing Obama but why he did not trust Romney on both domestic issues and foreign affairs

By Sununu's standard any white person is voting for Romney must be doing so because Romney is white

When the tea party first began to gain prominence I distinctly remember pundits asking the question, are tea party members and the tea party movement itself racist? The reasoning behind this question was that because there are few minorities and women in the tea party and the majority of participants are white males that this meant the tea party was both a racist and possibly even a sexist movement.

Interviews were conducted at tea party rallies asking members if they were racist basically because they were white males who gathered in large numbers and disagreed with Obama. Tea party members denied the allegations of racism and gave several reason (mostly invalid and often paranoid in my opinion)why they disliked Obama and his policies.

Yet, that wasn't enough for the media who continue to brand the tea party a racist movement and continued to ask the racism question. My point is that it seems as though it is acceptable to accuse white males of basing their voting decisions on race but such questions are inappropriate when the person is a minority.

The question is even more appropriate in Powell's case because he is breaking from a party he has supported for decades. His rationale that he suddenly disagrees with the policy direction of the Republican party is weak. First, the policy direction of the Republican party hasn't changed much in decades. Secondly, Romney wants to continue on the same policy and ideological track as the Bush administration, an administration he gladly served in, and who policies he supported and argued for.

When the tea party first began to gain prominence I distinctly remember pundits asking the question, are tea party members and the tea party movement itself racist? The reasoning behind this question was that because there are few minorities and women in the tea party and the majority of participants are white males that this meant the tea party was both a racist and possibly even a sexist movement.

Interviews were conducted at tea party rallies asking members if they were racist basically because they were white males who gathered in large numbers and disagreed with Obama. Tea party members denied the allegations of racism and gave several reason (mostly invalid and often paranoid in my opinion)why they disliked Obama and his policies.

Yet, that wasn't enough for the media who continue to brand the tea party a racist movement and continued to ask the racism question. My point is that it seems as though it is acceptable to accuse white males of basing their voting decisions on race but such questions are inappropriate when the person is a minority.

The question is even more appropriate in Powell's case because he is breaking from a party he has supported for decades. His rationale that he suddenly disagrees with the policy direction of the Republican party is weak. First, the policy direction of the Republican party hasn't changed much in decades. Secondly, Romney wants to continue on the same policy and ideological track as the Bush administration, an administration he gladly served in, and who policies he supported and argued for.

I can't think of anyone who was more personally fucked over by the Republican party and it's agenda than Colin Powell so I don't see why he should be loyal to a party with whom he has come to disagree on their policies and has given explicit explanation on what he disagrees with

Regarding teabaggers, I personally know many who are not racist at all but there are also plenty who are complete racist and not ashamed about it at all. It's not fair to paint the entire party as a bunch of racist but also disingenous to pretend that there isn't a strong element of racism in that group

I can't think of anyone who was more personally fucked over by the Republican party and it's agenda than Colin Powell so I don't see why he should be loyal to a party with whom he has come to disagree on their policies and has given explicit explanation on what he disagrees with

Regarding teabaggers, I personally know many who are not racist at all but there are also plenty who are complete racist and not ashamed about it at all. It's not fair to paint the entire party as a bunch of racist but also disingenous to pretend that there isn't a strong element of racism in that group

Fucked over? He was appointed to the Reagan Administration by Caspar Weinberger despite the fact that Powell was not particularly bright or impressive in any regard. Then he served under HW Bush. Then he was Sec. Of State under GW.

Doing a google image search isn't evidence of anything except your own laziness and stupidity. I don't think you have the mental capacity to fabricate anything. Some other loser with slightly more intelligence and a few seconds of free time probably did.

Fucked over? He was appointed to the Reagan Administration by Caspar Weinberger despite the fact that Powell was not particularly bright or impressive in any regard. Then he served under HW Bush. Then he was Sec. Of State under GW.

Please explain how he was "fucked over"

are you joking man

he was made a fool by the Bush Administration

He was set up by Bush/Cheney to be the fall guy for their scam to trick the country into going to war

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Powell later recounted how Vice President Dick Cheney had joked with him before he gave the speech, telling him, "You've got high poll ratings; you can afford to lose a few points." Powell's longtime aide-de-camp and Chief of Staff from 1989Ė2003, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, later characterized Cheney's view of Powell's mission as to "go up there and sell it, and we'll have moved forward a peg or two. Fall on your damn sword and kill yourself, and I'll be happy, too."

In September 2005, Powell was asked about the speech during an interview with Barbara Walters and responded that it was a "blot" on his record. He went on to say, "It will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now."

Regarding teabaggers, I personally know many who are not racist at all but there are also plenty who are complete racist and not ashamed about it at all. It's not fair to paint the entire party as a bunch of racist but also disingenous to pretend that there isn't a strong element of racism in that group

I think that goes for all parties, there is strong elements of racism in EVERY party.

Doing a google image search isn't evidence of anything except your own laziness and stupidity. I don't think you have the mental capacity to fabricate anything. Some other loser with slightly more intelligence and a few seconds of free time probably did.

well since I was actually alive during the time all of the various racist shit was in the news I guess I should have depended on my memory to find all of those pictures rather than using the interweb

Powell gives explicit reasons (shared by many many millions of people in this country) as to why he continues to endorse Obama and why he does not trust Romney on both the economy and foreign policy

why do some people just choose to ignore what he is saying, especially when his views are quite common and shared by millions of people

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ďOne day he has a certain strong view about staying in Afghanistan, but then on Monday night he agrees with the withdrawal. Same thing in Iraq. On almost every issue that was discussed on Monday night, Governor Romney agreed with the President with some nuances. But this is quite a different set of foreign policy views than he had earlier in the campaign. And my concern, which Iíve expressed previously in a public way, is that sometimes I donít sense that he has thought through these issues as thoroughly as he should have, and he gets advice from his campaign staff that he then has to adjust to modify as he goes along.

INTERVIEWER: Are you concerned about the people that are advising Governor Romney?

POWELL: I think thereís some very, very strong neo-conservative views that are presented by the Governor that I have some trouble with. There are other issues as well, not just the economy and foreign policy. Iím more comfortable with President Obama and his administration when it comes to issues like what are we going to do about climate, what are we going to do about immigration? What are we going to do about education? Lots of things like that. I do not want to see the new Obamacare plan thrown off the table. It has issues, you have to fix some things in that plan. But what I see when I look at that plan is 30 million of our fellow citizens will now be covered by insurance. And I think thatís good. Weíre one of the few nations in the world, with our size, population and wealth, that does not have universal health care.Ē